Price of Skylark

[tubeperson]

I'd like to second the kind words spoken about Beaver Felton at Bass Central.  I purchased a new Stanley bass that was in stock from them, and Beaver spent a fair amount of time helping me decide from the basses they had in stock.  His time, as well as anyone's time extended as a service deserves fair compensation.  Just put yourself in their shoes.  You wouldn't consistently work for free, so why should your axe advisor.
 
I expect to make more acquisitions from Bass Central because of their service (I also buy used Alembics that come across my path.  They all need a good home!)

[David Houck]

Mike; I hope you don't mind that we've hijacked your thread.  This thread has taken some turns that are interesting to say the least.
 
Joey said, customers are rarely loyal.  My guess is that as a generalization this is probably a reasonable conclusion.  However, there seems to me to be a growing awareness of this issue as it affects our communities, macro and micro, and us as individuals.  In the town where I live there are many people who frequent locally owned coffee shops, rather than Starbucks, simply because they are locally owned.  This appears to be true for other locally owned businesses; and there is strong support for locally grown produce.  Personally, I have tried to become more aware of the issue in my personal purchase decisions.  For instance, when I can, I prefer to shop at a locally owned business rather than a large chain.  I never shop at Walmart.  And I respond to good service with loyalty.  Another consideration that I think is important is a company's ethics.  Do they pay their employees fairly, do their business decisions consider environmental impact, etc.  So while I think Joey's observation is probably accurate generally, I do think that there are people who are loyal customers and for whom price is not the sole criteria in their purchase decisions.

[jetbass79]

I think the reason that customer loyalty is on the downswing in this country is because we are now seeing what I would call the Second Era of Big Business.  In the 1800s Big Business was the steel and shipping business, but now it's the corporatization of service/retail businesses.  
People go where they go because large corporations buy large volumes of goods and alledgedly pass the savings on to the customer so people are now just buying things based on price and availability.  If Best Buy has such and such cheaper than Circuit City then someone will go there but if the transverse is the case then the opposite will happen.  
I used to work at a Guitar Center where a Sam Ash was up the road and I will tell you people would go there come back and vice versa.  They would play each store just to get a better deal and those people didn't care that they were taking away from our paychecks.  That's the other problem with the corporatization of retail:  the boys in their ivory towers don't care what you sell something for as long as the deal is not taken by the competition because a sale is a sale to them, even if the salesperson doesn't get anything for it, meaning selling the thing at cost.  It was lame but this is what corporate America has done to American society.  When it comes to smaller institutions of retail, however, people are generally loyal until those smaller institutions that drowned out of business by America, Inc.  
Fortunately, for the most part, the boutique companies only cater to boutique institutions of retail.  Because of this specialist role that boutique stores have, the retail giants cannot destroy them because they do not cater to the boutique market.  Fortunately, for everyone's sake here, you won't find Alembic products at a Guitar Center -- the clientele they cater to both lack the money and imagination to buy such fine things when a $200 instrument is good enough because I'm not professional.  We could call the corporatization of M.I. the Wal- Martization of M.I. because in reality that's what it is.  And it's sad, but as long as everyone thinks they're getting a great deal at the expense of the workers it will continue to be this way.

[jalevinemd]

John,
 
Be careful with your references to the clientele at the larger chain stores. As do many, I consider myself quite imaginative and have the money for my Alembics. I've also been very happy with my SG, Les Paul, Strat, PRS and Marshall Amps, purchased at Sam Ash and GC. I have made some close associates at these stores and they have bent over backwards to help me over the years. Loyalty can and does exist even at these larger retailers. I've said it before...Alembic is a wonderful company and it's clients obviously quite passionate. But we are not the guardians of the temple. The world exists beyond Santa Rosa. Let's not lose sight of that fact.
 
Regards,
 
Jonathan

[lbpesq]

Bradley (byoung):
 
Great story and good for you!  I think when all is said and done you will find that your decision to stick with Beaver made economic sense too in that it resulted in a big deposit in your bank account of karma.  (Are my California Hippie/Dippie roots showing?)
 
Bill, tgo

[jetbass79]

I will be the first to agree that it is in fact possible for the good customer or great customer to exist in the large chain retail context.  I have had several of these types of customers who were awesome customers.  However, there are more and more customers out there in the large chain context that only care about price.  As was stated before, loyalty is rare though I find it personally gratifying to find loyal customers as I would like to think I am one myself.

[David Houck]

And of course the other side of that coin is that there are good and great sales people and then there are sales people who only care about commission.   This discussion isn't just about loyal customers; it's also about retailers who are worthy of customer loyalty.

[gare]

Interesting thread.
It's human nature to want to save a buck/get the lowest price on whatever. But as pointed out, what about after the sale ? Service etc..
It's a shame that the small stores are being squeezed out, I've always found the coolest things in the little places. The bigger chains also have their place, if there's a GC or SA down the street and you need a pick or had a cord go bad..what the heck. The thing that's always put me off to those places is finding a sales person who actually knows the products they're pushing.
Customer loyalty..that goes hand and hand with the seller. If you're treated fairly wouldn't you go back ?
The dealer I got my Alembic from, he was happy with the deal, I was happy with it. And they were nice people and easy to deal with. Since then I have been back and made several other purchases. Now if he had made his months pay off my bass..well, guess that would be the back scratching thing.  
Johnathan and Joey bring up good points too.
We're actually lucky that we can get 'deals'..when was the last time you put gas in your car and negotiated the price ?
Heck, I frequent Walmart, Kmart, & dollar stores for the mundane things, paper towels, oil for the truck, cat food. Although I don't always agree with their policies, I have saved enough to upgrade some of my equipment. Hopefully soon I'll have a few extra $'s to
order the fretless I've been thinking about.
Well, I'm babbling, it's early, time for more caffeine.
 
 
Gary

[keith_h]

Well I have never really liked the idea of the  Manufacturers Suggest Retail Price. It has no real correlation to the true retail price of an item and is of little use when comparing one manufacturers custom built item to another since you don't know the base cost involved. The only reason I see for it is to highten the impression of a great deal to the customer. I would much prefer that the items reflect the real retail price. This would have the benefit, in my case at least, of reducing buyers remorse (i.e. Did I really get the best deal?) and reduce the stress/pressure of haggling.  
 
Since this is not the perfect world, (IMHO,) I did shop around when I bought my Orion and BB. I called three shops that had them in stock and discussed the best price they could give. I did not divulge the prices to the other dealers as I consider this to be confidential business information. Likewise I did not play one against the other by threatening to go to a different dealer. I feel I ended up with very good prices for both basses. I work this way based on the premise that the businesses have to be able to make a certain amount of money to survive. This will vary from dealer to dealer depending upon their local business costs. I also feel this is the fairest way to work in the event I don't purchase the item. In all cases I can say I gave them an honest chance to sell an item and the dealers time, while not profitable, was not wasted in a vain attempt to make a sale.
 
I work pretty much the same way with automobile purchases. The only difference is I start with a
price and work lower from there (I have also run the VIN and dealer costs so have an idea of the true dealer cost). In any event I do not  share negotiated prices between dealers. Surprisingly I have found that the smaller, low volume dealers can quite frequently beat the big, high volume dealers........ But this is changing the subject so before I'm accused of hijacking, which is not good in these times, I say Have a good evening. :-)  
 
Keith